Eurovision Song Contest
The Eurovision Song Contest is an annual competition held among active member countries of the European Broadcasting Union (EBU). There are also organised official groups in each country (OGAE) where they hold Second Chance contests, and various others as well. Countries must be in the European Broadcasting Area and have active membership with the EBU to compete Each member country submits a song to be performed on live television and then casts votes for the other countries' songs to determine the most popular song in the competition. The contest has been broadcast every year since its inauguration in 1956 and is one of the longest-running television programmes in the world. It is also one of the most watched non-sporting events in the world, with audience figures having been quoted in recent years as anything between 100 million and 600 million internationally. The contest has also been broadcast outside Europe to such places as Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, Chile, China, Colombia, Egypt, India, Japan, Jordan, Mexico, New Zealand, the Philippines, South Korea, Taiwan, Thailand, the United States, Uruguay and Venezuela despite the fact that that they do not compete. Since 2000, the contest has also been broadcast over the Internet, with more than 74,000 people in almost 140 countries having watched the 2006 edition online. Facts *'Eurovision Song Contest' made its debut in Lugano, Switzerland on 24 May 1956 *'In 59 years', over 1,400 songs have competed in the Eurovision Song Contest. *'Noel Kelehan' conducted five winners (1980, 1987, 1992, 1993 and 1996), all for the same country - Ireland. *'Dutch conductor' Dolf van der Linden conducted for seven different countries (Belgium, Germany, Ireland, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Sweden and Switzerland). *'Three women' conducted a combined 4 entries between 1973 and 1985. Nurit Hirsh conducted two of them, both for Israel (including the winning song in 1978, which she composed). *'Johnny Logan' won the Eurovision Song Contest three times. In 1980 and 1987 he represented Ireland as performer and won both times, in 1992 he wrote Linda Martin's winning entry Why Me. *'Johnny Logan' is also a part of a group of five people who have written two winning songs (1987 and 1992). The other four are Willy van Hemert (1957 and 1959), Yves Dessca (1971 and 1972), Rolf Løvland (1985 and 1995) and Brendan Graham (1994 and 1996). *'Lys Assia', Gigliola Cinquetti, Linda Martin, Elisabeth Andreassen and Dima Bilan are the only five artists to win one year and finish second another year (Linda and Dima are the only two of these five to win on their second try having finished second on their first). *'Poland' made the most impressive debut in 1994, when Edyta Gorniak came 2nd with To Nie Ja, closely followed by Serbia's victory in 2007. Latvia were the third most impressive in 2000. *'Although' Serbia & Montenegro had been represented twice before, and before again as part of SFR Yugoslavia, 2007 was the first time that both Serbia and Montenegro took part as independent countries. *'Norway' could be found at the bottom of the list as many as eleven times! Sometimes with the infamous Nul Points! The unfortunates came last in 1963, 1969, 1974, 1976, 1978, 1981, 1990, 1997, 2001, 2004 and 2012. Nevertheless, they also won three times (in 1985, 1995 and 2009). *'Ireland ' won a record seven times. Luxembourg, France, the United Kingdom and Sweden 5 times. The Netherlands 4 times. *'ABBA' is the most successful Eurovision winner. The Swedish pop band won the contest in 1974. *'Finland' took the longest to achieve its first win in 2006, waiting 45 years. *'In 2008', a record number of 43 countries took part, just like in 2011. *'The most covered' Eurovision entry is Domenico Modugno's Nel Blu Dipinto Di Blu, also known as Volare. The song has been covered by famous stars such as Frank Sinatra, Cliff Richard, David Bowie and many more. *'Televoting' was introduced in Dublin in 1997. *'No song' has ever won from the second spot in the running order, leading people to believe that this particular performing spot is "cursed". *'In 2004', the first televised Semi-Final was held. In 2008, a second Semi-Final was introduced due to the growing number of partiicpating countries. *'In 2009', some 124 million people watched the three live shows on television. In 2011, over 105 million people tuned in for the shows. In 2014, an estimated 195 million people watched the shows live. *'Australia' has been broadcasting the contest on their public channel SBS since 1983. 2009 was the first year they sent its own commentators (Julia Zemiro and Sam Pang), and in 2014 DR rewarded the country's loyalty and enthusiasm by inviting them to participate in the second semi-final's interval act in Copenhagen. *'During' the Grand Final of 2012, more than 1.5 million tweets were posted with the hashtag #Eurovision, peaking already 20 minutes into the live broadcast. Over 5 million tweets were posted during the final of the 2014 contest. Category:Eurovision Song Contest